Indian Premier League : Rant Session

So here we are with an IPL auction occurring on the 8th and 9th of January, 2011. Was this necessary at all? Were two teams required to make the IPL more lucrative and better than it already was?

First and foremost, I'd like to point out that two teams weren't required at all in this season's IPL. Eight teams were just doing fine. The two new franchises Kochi and Pune were bought at very high prices, if you add the prices at which the teams were bought they add up to a whopping Rs. 3,235 cr which is more than the prices paid for the original eight teams combined. Good money making motive, eh? Ideally, if the BCCI weren't moneybags that they are, they would have in all means started another tier of 6-8 teams and used the promotion-relegation system as it's used in Football. Such a venture would have also helped a lot more cricketers a chance to play in the IPL and it could have spread the event to other parts of the country.

Cheerleaders at a game in IPL '08

Coming to the players auction which is taking place in a fortnight's time in Bangalore. It's a shame really, I can't really understand why there is a need for the whole process to happen. Level playing field for the two new franchises? That's their bloody problem if they were tubelights who woke up three years late. The teams that are already in the league should have been the first ones to have negotiations for new contracts with every member of their squad. The players who couldn't strike a deal with their franchises, could have been placed in the auction without a reduction of money or limit on the number of players who could be retained. The process of retention of players just widened the smiles on the faces of the Pune and Kochi owners seeing two franchises in Chennai SuperKings and Mumbiai Indians have half their money gone on four players and three other teams whose pockets will be smaller in the auction.

Now coming to the procedure of actual auction that is taking place. I find the whole thing that is held every year, a bit ridiculous. I think the player should be consulted while the auction is taking place. What if he wants to play for his home tean for any price and doesn't want to show up for another team for a very high price? I'm quite sure there are a few Francesco Totti's and Matt Le Tissier's in Indian Cricket. It's plain stupidity just giving away the player to the highest bidder and not thinking about the player and whom he plays for. We already have Robin Uthappa who said he didn't particularly enjoy playing for Mumbai Indians in the first season and was glad that Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him.

To summarize it all. IPL was a good idea(I wouldn't call it a great one because it's based on The Football League System and American Sports) but has been led down by the board acting like money grabbing whores and desire for Page 3 limelight. Now it's merely turned into a commercial event. From Lalit Modi to Shashi Tharoor, the IPL could have been so much better as a sporting event if it was handled the right way.

Dexter : The Big One (Season V Finale Review)

The last episode was excellent, not earth-shattering like 'The Getaway' but it was amazing in it's own way. It was kinda different, like the whole season. It was the most emotional season of all, which was of course expected after Rita's death. The scene between Astor and Dexter at the end was very touching. I'm thankful that Lumen's gone away, I've always liked it better when Dexter hunts alone, didn't like Miguel Prado in season III either. It was more weird to see a woman killing someone in his signature style. Plus, I wasn't a big fan of the idea of a serial killer couple. Serial killers always work best alone.

Lumen's exit was somewhat very pale, though. I expected better. The whole theme of the series is : Something just change your DNA forever. But wonder how Lumen got the dark passenger out so fast, just a day after killing Chase? I would have thought it would have been better if they killed Lumen. Now there is a person living in the world who knows Dexter's dart secrets perfectly well. Not happened before. The Ice Truck Killer, Doakes, Lila, Miguel Prado - everyone died. Perhaps, a return for Lumen later on? I hope not, but I sense that happening.

The Quinn twist is very interesting, now Quinn in all probability knows that Dexter is the one who killed Liddy and purposely let Quinn off so that Quinn doesn't confess that Liddy was following Dexter. I'll be interested to see if Quinn and Dexter become pals, because each other know each other's secrets(Quinn taking cash from a crime scene in season IV and hiring Liddy to check on one of his colleagues) or will Quinn look deeper into Dexter's dark secrets like Doakes did?

I think it is quite evident that Debra will catch Dexter eventually, every season she's getting closer and closer. This was the episode I thought, here's the moment but then not really. But it was so, so close, unbelievable. A theme attached to that can be that Debra like her dad Harry doesn't mind people killing murderers when the law can't help.

The big disappointment of the season : Definitely the fact, that there was no follow up on the Trinity case. I know it's with the FBI and stuff but I seriously expected more since Dexter was so heavily involved in it. He was Kyle Butler and Trinity was his wife's murderer.

Episode Rating : 8.5/10. (If Lumen's exit was better, a 9+ for sure, that was really a drag in another enthralling episode.)

Season Rating : 9/10. (Different from the first four, but once it picked up pace it was awesome.)